NoBudget is now called Deframed

Since the serial fabrication of digital cameras has made them affordable, making (short) films is not a question of money anymore. Strictly speaking, it has been overdue to rename our experimental section NoBudget to align it with the way filmmakers actually work today. For whether the budget is “low”, “no”, “don’t know” or “just a little more” – it can’t be due to monetary reasons that we assign a film to a certain festival competition.

Deframed is taking new paths, but the direction stays the same. The attitude, which had been established at NoBudget over the course of 32 years, is rethought, dismantled, reconfigured and updated. Deframed includes camp and trash, flickering and fiddling, as well as video art and conceptional dilettantism. In the Deframed competition, a lot is wagered and won, and we’re screening wild collages, humorous interventions, weird stories, personal positions and an overwhelming rushing of pictures.

The selected films compete for the Jury Award (2,000 euros), which is chosen by a jury of three, and the Audience Award (1,500 euros).

Eröffnung mit Programm 1: Wednesday June 7th | 19:00 h | Festival Center Physikalisches Labor
Best of Deframed: Monday June 12th | 19:30 h | Zeise 2
Film selection: Sarah Adam, Pierre Bagieu, Anja Ellenberger, Anna Feistel, Felix Piatkowski

More infos about the programmes you will find here:

Deframed Competition / Programme 1

Deframed Competition / Programme 2

Deframed Competition / Programme 3

Deframed Competition / Programme 4

Deframed Wettbewerb / Programme 5

NoBuget is Deframed.

The time for a NewNoBudget has come. After 32 years we decided to change the competitions name from NoBudget to Deframed. This bold move may surprise some people, provoke others and hopefully convince many.

Since years now the NoBudget Competition has dealt with way more aspects of filmmaking then solely production costs. This competition has always been dedicated to the experiment itself, to resistant, marginal and raw works. In recent years, affordable HD cameras, automated translation programs and digital transfer services lessened the financial aspects of filmmaking. With our without budget, young and independent filmmakers, students, vigorous artists and enthusiastic amateurs are engaging in audiovisual experiments all over the world.

The re-naming of the NoBuget section is a direct response to these dynamics. It has been overdue to find a new frame for our experimental section to align it with the way filmmakers actually work today. We are adjusting our concept, integrating current aspects of filmmaking and emphasizing the invisible characteristics and qualities of this competition. We break free from old patters and prepare for up and coming experiments, reckless ventures and interdisciplinary constellations.

Thus we say goodbye to the truly loved NoBudget section, which inspired us for years, showed us wonderful works and rare diamonds, which is full of wild anecdotes and has always been extraordinarily unconventional. NoBudget was the origin of the festival, an Eldorado for subversive filmmaking and as counterpart to the mainstream always Deframed at heart.

It is precisely this position and attitude for which we are looking in current filmmaking, that we want to cherish and celebrate. Deframed is still about resistant, marginal, bold and challenging works: camp and trash, flickering and intricate images, video art and conceptual amateurism. This competition invites us to examine formal aesthetics, to engage with films that experiment with sound, image and audience and to relish works that might explode in our ears and eyes.

This current first Deframed edition presents detailed studies in formalism, post-colonial expeditions and humorist interventions. Listen to the voices of the past, decipher cryptic messages, meet mysterious protagonists. And follow a subjective camera until the shiny surface of Full HD is distorted by glitches and the nostalgia of analogue film material determines the framing. Thus we return to where it all began.

NoBudget is Deframed.

Text Sarah Adam

Film selection Sarah Adam, Pierre Bagieu, Anja Ellenberger, Anna Feistel, Felix Piatkowski